Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2003 March 30 
Posted on 03/29/2003 10:35:53 PM PST by petuniasevan
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2003 March 30
Explanation: Did observatories exist before telescopes? One example that still stands today is the Beijing Ancient Observatory in China. Starting in the 1400s astronomers erected large instruments here to enable them to measure star and planet positions with increasing accuracy. Pre-telescopic observatories throughout the world date back to before recorded history, providing measurements that helped to determine when to plant crops, how to navigate ships, and when religious ceremonies should occur. It is interesting to compare the above picture to one taken in 1895.
This is a hand-painted lantern slide photo, taken in 1895.
Other pre-telescopic observatories include Stonehenge; Great Zimbabwe; the Castle Tower in Palermo, Sicily; a site in Nuremberg, Germany; the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India; a site in Cairo, Egypt; and of course Tycho Brahe's famed Uraniburg.
Uraniburg, Hven Island, Denmark. Built by Tycho Brahe in the late 1570s.
It fell to ruins before the mid-19th century.
Autodesk's founder reports gross errors by Limbaugh, CNN, Snopes (Remember "Columbia's Last Photo?")
Look at the difference in the skyline between then and now!
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